Sacrifice
by Diabolicael
Summary: Dark Storm Companion Piece. Ambrose resigns his post as High Royal Advisor, awful truths are revealed.


**So, I was surprised everyone assumed that Ambrose resigned as advisor just becuase he was in love with DeeDee. So, here's the full story. Prepair to be schooled.**

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Ambrose adjusted his vest with a quick, snapping movement and knocked sharply at the door before him. The Queen's day sitting room. She would be inside, no doubt doing more endless needle point and thinking. Always thinking. In his current sour mood, Ambrose felt more inclined to call it plotting. He heard her soft, melodic voice beckoning him to enter. He squared his already tense shoulders and pushed the door inward, striding towards his monarch with purpose.

Illiancara graced him with a bright smile that would have warmed his heart both fifteen annuals and fifteen minutes ago. But that was before. The only emotion such a smile could evoke in his bitter heart now was betrayal.

"Ambrose, what a pleasant surprise," she practically cooed. He came to a stop before her and dipped forward in a formal bow. He had always done so, for as long as he'd known the woman. This was the first time the display of subservience and respect seemed like a farce.

"Your Majesty," he said curtly.

The Queen gazed at her advisor quizzically, obviously confused by his sharp tone. "What is it you wanted?" she asked, her voice kind.

The man snapped to attention. His voice was firm and even as he said, " I wish to formally resign my post as High Royal Advisor."

For a moment the Queen said nothing. Them she began to laugh. Illiancara's laughter, as always, was light and airy and pleasant. It turned Ambrose's stomach.

"Oh, Ambrose," she exclaimed, voice soft and breathy. "You can not be serious."

His stony expression did not falter. "I am completely serious, Majesty."

The pleasant laughter ended as though a switch had been thrown. "Why would you do such a thing? You have been my most loyal, trusted advisor for almost fifty annuals." She paused, lavender eyes narrowing. "It is DG, isn't it? She is why you are abandoning your Queen."

Ambrose felt the corners of his mouth turn downwards in a frown. "After a fashion, yes," he conceded. "But not in the way your Majesty believes."

One fine, silvery eyebrow arched in a delicate display of derision. "My daughter feels the childish need to defy me, Ambrose. When she outgrows this compulsion, she will grow tired of using you to irritate me. Do not throw your life's work away on an adolescent fancy."

He could feel the heat rising up his neck at the disdainful way she spoke about the princess - his friend, his beloved. His hero.

"Majesty," the advisor began, mimicking her aggrieved, pitying tone. "I've no intention of throwing away anything. I am merely divesting myself of a position that no longer holds my ambition, attention, or affection."

"If not for DG, then why, Ambrose?" Her voice dripped of condescension. "What has caused his change of heart?"

He tried to hold his tongue, but the words slipped out anyway. "Realizing my beloved Queen had none."

"Explain yourself," Illiancara snapped - all ice and outrage. The last of Ambrose's self-restraint fled him at the Queen's righteous indignation.

"Explain myself? I am not the one who has explaining to do, Illiancara." It was the first time the man had ever addressed her as such and she glared at him for his lack of deference. "I told DeeDee once that you were happy to make the sacrifices you thought were right. I told her this to _comfort_ her. I never would have said such a think had I know at the time that you had sacrificed _her_, along with the lives of countless others."

"Ridiculous," the Queen declared primly, eyes flashing. Ambrose leveled a hard look on her. Had Dee or Cain or Raw seen it, they would not have recognized the man.

"I know what you did."

The words hung heavy in the air. It took Illiancara a moment to force the haughty question, "What do you think you know?"

"You orchestrated the fall of the O.Z.; banished one daughter and condemned the other to a prison of flesh and blood, pain and despair." Now that he had begun to speak, the dark-haired man's newly acquired knowledge tumbled forth from his lips. He needed to say it out loud, get it out of his head - before it drove him mad echoing around his mind.

"Had I never become Glitch and seen the things I'd seen helping DeeDee save the O.Z., I never would have been able to put it together. Fifteen annuals ago, the fields of the Papay withered and died. The witch had taken Azkadellia and once her conquest of the Realms began, everyone - myself included - assumed she had been the cause. But it was you."

The Queen said nothing, only waited for him to continue, lavender eyes like chips of ice.

"The Sunseeder. I never would have been so bold as to think of affecting the very orbits of the planets and stars - if not for your encouragement. You told me of the Emerald, a stone with such magical power; my machine could never have worked without it. Brining eternal darkness to the O.Z. was the kind of thing the witch would never be able to resist. And the Emerald would never have been put to that use without the Sunseeder.

"I didn't know then that you had told DeeDee about the Emerald annuals before I ever invented the machine. You moved us all around like chess pieces. An entire board of pawns and one ruthless Queen.

"You sacrificed us all."

"For the love of my child," the woman reminded him bitterly.

"You may have loved Azkadellia once," he conceded. "But you have long since forgotten what love is. Had you truly cared for your daughter, you never would have forced her to endure as the witch's puppet. You did what you did out of selfish pride, unable to admit that you'd wronged DeeDee. Unable to accept your own mistakes and face the consequences of your actions."

"And you will delight in telling her all your discoveries, won't you, Ambrose? Spill unto her all my transgressions for her to turn against me."

"I'm not going to tell her," he informed the Queen flatly. "I'll not tell anyone. Knowing of your treachery will only bring more pain to those who have suffered enough. More than enough. But I will advise you one last time, your Majesty. Step down." The Queen only gave him a silent, icy glare as he went on. "You are wholly unfit to govern the kingdom. If you press the issue, you will find your list of allies is short indeed. The loyalty of your subjects has shifted to a woman far more worthy.

"The O.Z. belongs to DeeDee now," he finished proudly. The man turned on his heel and strode from the room, head held high. He could feel those ethereally colored eyes that had once held him enthralled boring into his back as he went. As the door closed behind him, Ambrose realized that this was the first time he had ever walked out on the Queen without waiting for her dismissal.

He leaned against the door for a moment and sighed. Had Illiancara always been this selfish, prideful, vain woman? Had she ever been the great and noble leader he had thought he served so faithfully? He shook his head, pushing away from the door, and walked off down the corridor. The past was passed, and while he must not forget it, he had to focus on the here and now. And, Gods willing, the future.

A small smile curled his lips, erasing the frown of only a moment ago. _DeeDee._

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**Review! Come on people! Give me Ooo's and Aaah's.**


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